Squeaky Cheese Curds – A Guide to Cheddar Awesomeness

To my good fortune, a fellow American living in Erfurt, who has access to a car, recently became more active in making his own Kefir. Not only does this mean that he has accumulated excess Kefir grains that he has gifted me, but also that he is making more frequent trips to the local raw milk station. Last Monday afternoon, we visited the farm.

After he filled up his containers with three liters of milk, I started filling one of my two ten-liter tanks. It became clear near the end that the milk was exhausted as it was dispensing slower and slower. I did attempt to fill the second tank, but it became unbearable slow. A local, waiting her turn, suggested cashing out the money and re-adding it to the machine. Knowing that it would be futile, I simply said that we would come back at another time.

My newly acquired cheese form would not be useful for a ten-liter batch of cheddar. However, making a batch of cheddar cheese curds to share with the locals, spreading some Wisconsin culture, sounded like a fantastic idea. So, I give to you the exact same process to make a cheddar cheese wheel, but stopping with Squeaky Cheese Curds.

*Note that the calf rennet I have is diluted to 1:1000. Normal strength rennet is diluted to 1:12000. This means that I am using 12 times the amount that is typical shown in recipes; in this case, 1/2 tsp of typical-diluted rennet is called for for ten liters of milk. Know your ingredients.
^It may be worth noting that those moving on to hooping the curd and forming a wheel (or block), the pH target for filling the cheese mold and pressing is 5.2.

My make day consisted of the following process. Know that when making cheddar, the process takes no less than eight hours – most of that time is slowly stirring the pot. You may want to prepare yourself for that; find some good music. I prefer James Taylor.

You will also note that my pH meter calibration was off by 0.15. I unknowingly purchased pH calibrations for 4.00 and 6.86, where my pH meter calibrates to 4.00 and 7.00. I adjust for this by simply subtracting 0.15 from my readings. These approximations are close enough for home cheesemaking. In the future, I will be more careful when purchasing these calibration liquids.

After milling the curds, salt is applied in three rounds. Allow the salt to mellow the curd for approximately three minutes between each round. The amount of salt will seem like a lot; in fact, if you test some of the curds immediately, the salt will be extreme. However, this salt will be absorbed over time.

After four hours, the curds were still a bit salty, but extremely flavorful. After eight hours, the curds were simply delicious and super squeaky. The next day, the salt had perfectly balanced out the flavors – and the squeak remained!

For an exciting adventure into the science behind the squeak, I highly recommend reading this article at CheeseScience.org, as well as all of his other posts.